Red-hot Rockets earn sweep

Wednesday, December 14, 2011By Anthony S. Puca Staff Writer

Forrest's Mark Pope (20) takes the rock to the rack versus Huntland Friday night in Chapel Hill. Pope led the Rockets with 18 points versus the Hornets and was best in the scoring column again Saturday night with 11 points in a 53-27 win at Cornersville. Photo by Anthony S. Puca

The red-hot Forrest Rockets' (6-4-3-0) winning streak increased to four games over the weekend, beginning with a 56-44 win at home Friday night versus District 9A foe Huntland (2-3, 1-1) and ending with a 53-27 thrashing at intra-county rival Cornersville (2-7, 0-1) on Saturday night.

The Hornets managed to stay close to the Rockets for about five minutes in Chapel Hill, tying the game at 5-5 before Forrest scored the final nine points of the quarter to open up a 14-5 margin after the first eight minutes.

A Jacob Daughrity steal and score sparked the Rockets' rally as Zach Horvath scored three in the run and Dakota Zimmerman converted a three-point play at period's end.

Forrest head coach Wes Hobbs said after the game, "It was nice to get out to a little bit of a lead tonight to have some leeway to do some different things. They made a run at us in the second half, but we knew they would and we had to weather the storm a little bit, but we kept our composure."

From there, it was all Rockets the remainder of the contest as they opened up a 32-15 halftime lead and increased it to twenty-points at 45-25 by the end of the third before cruising home with the twelve-point win.

"The atmosphere was great tonight," said Hobbs. "The student section was out in full effect and it was awesome seeing people I know from the community out here cheering us on a hundred percent. It was a lot of fun."

Mark Pope led the Rocket scoring attack versus Huntland with 18 points, Horvath was next with a dozen, Zach Ray finished with 7, Tyler Rumley and Marshall Hunter scored five points apiece, Daughrity ended up with 4 points, Zimmerman 3, and Lucas Pruitt saw his first action of the season after returning from injury to score 2 points.

"We can't let up at all," said Hobbs. "This is going to be a tough district and we are going to have to come to play every night."

On Saturday in Cornersville, the Rockets took control of the game early versus the Bulldogs, leading 26-6 after the first half, thanks to a defensive goose egg in the second quarter.

The Rockets went long ball on the Dawgs, drilling ten treys in the ballgame.

Forrest extended the lead to 42-12 with a 16-6 third quarter before winning by twenty-six.

Ten players notched points in the scoring column for the Rockets with Pope leading the way once again with 11 points (2 treys).

Chase Hensley had the hot hand from three-land for Forrest with a trio of treys for nine points, Horvath scored a half dozen, Hunter had six points on two three-pointers, and Daughrity also scored six points (1 trey).

Lucas Pruitt netted four points in the post, Ray had three, Ty Hoeft and Kennedy Mathis drained one trey apiece, and Rumley rounded out the scoring with 2 points.